Chapter 2. Insect Foods of North American Indigenous Populations ...

Chapter 211 of 68 9/20/2012 1:34 PMof bushels could be collected. They only grow at certain seasons of the year. The Indians comefar and near to gather them. The worms are dried in the sun, the shell rubbed off, when ayellowish kernal remains, like a small yellow grain of rice. This is oily, very nutritious, and notunpleasant to the taste, and under the name of koo-chah-bee forms a very important article offood. The Indians gave me some; it does not taste bad, and if one were ignorant of its origin, itwould make fine soup. Gulls, ducks, snipe, frogs, and Indians fatten on it.Browne (1865: 111-113) described encountering a deposit of "worms" [actually the pupae of Hydropyrushians Say], about two feet deep and three or four feet wide, which extended "like a vast rim" around the shoresof Mono Lake, one of several highly alkaline lakes in the California-Nevada area:I saw no end to it during a walk of several miles along the beach. . . . It would appear that theworms, as soon as they attain the power of locomotion, creep up from the water, or are depositedon the beach by the waves during some of those violent gales which prevail in this region. TheMono Indians derive from them a fruitful source of subsistence. By drying them in the sun andmixing them with acorns, berries, grass-seeds, and other articles of food gathered up in themountains, they make a conglomerate called cuchaba, which they use as a kind of bread. I amtold it is very nutritious and not at all unpalatable. The worms are also eaten in their naturalcondition. It is considered a delicacy to fry them in their own grease. When properly preparedby a skillful cook they resemble pork 'cracklings.' I was not hungry enough to require one ofthese dishes during my sojourn, but would recommend any friend who may visit the lake to eat apound or two and let me know the result at his earliest convenience. . . . There must be hundrds,perhaps thousands of tons of these oleaginous insects cast up on the beach every year. There isno danger of starvation on the shores of Mono. The inhabitants may be snowed in, flooded out,or cut off by aboriginal hordes, but they can always rely upon the beach for fat meat.Palmer (1871: 426) states that the "ke-chah-re" from Mono Lake are dried and pulverized, then mixedwith meal made from acorns, to be sun-dried or baked as bread, or mixed with water and boiled with hot stonesfor soup.Loew (1876: 189) states, in describing Owens Lake: "Neither fish nor mollusks can exist, but some formsof lower animal life are plentiful, as infusoriae, copepoda, and larvae of insects." Loew continues:. . . one of the most striking phenomena is the occurrence of a singular fly, that covers the shore ofthe lake in a stratum 2 feet in width and 2 inches in thickness, and occurs nowhere else in thecounty; only at Mono Lake, another alkaline lake, it is seen again. The insect is inseparable fromthe alkaline water, and feeds upon the organic matter of the above-named alga [species notknown] that is washed in masses upon the shore. In the larva state it inhabits the alkaline lake, inespecially great numbers in August and September, and the squaws congregate here to fish withbaskets for them. Dried in the sun and mixed with flour, they serve as a sort of bread of greatdelicacy for the Indians.Hoffman (1878: 465-466) reported as follows, presumably in relation to H. hians:The Pah-Utes in the southwestern portion of Nevada, and even across the line into California,consume the larvae of flies found upon the borders of some 'alkali' lakes. The organic matterwashed ashore is soon covered with flies, where they deposit their eggs; there being not sufficientnourishment for all the worms, some die, when more eggs are deposited, and so on ad infinitum,until there is a belt of swarming, writhing worms from 2 to 4 feet broad, and from an inch to 3inches in depth. This was the exact condition on the shore of Owen's Lake, California, in August,which appears to be the favorable season. At such localities the Indians congregate, scoop up andpack all that can be transported for present and future use. When thoroughly dried, it is groundinto meal, and prepared and eaten as by the Shoshonees.Williston (1883) studied a sample of dipterous larvae and adults sent to him from the Soda Lakes nearRagtown, Nevada, and found them identical with material from Mono Lake. Williston described the adult of theSoda Lakes material under the name, Ephydra californica Packard (the adult of which was not previouslydescribed), while noting that differences are apparent in the larval stages and the Soda Lakes specimens may infact represent E. hians. Williston quotes from an earlier source: "The water [Soda Lakes] appears to be wantingin animal life, with the exception of a minute fly, the larva of which is a small worm, accumulating in such large